STARTING TO FEEL LIKE SUMMER AROUND HERE

Not my idea of nice weather, but that's what happens as we move out of spring.  Hasn't made it to 100* yet, but it won't be long.  The nights are still getting chilly, so I'm waiting to body clip Daisy and Quilla. 

Looks like Wister and Ruger will be going to a new home up by Flagstaff this month.  Sounds like it will be a good fit, but it's a long way up there to do a home study.  So we will make one trip, and as I told Anna, if we didn't think it would work out for the boys, we'd have no qualms about turning around and bringing them back with us.   She has reining horses and says she's admired donkeys some of her friends have, so she isn't a total newbie to equine.

ANOTHER PICTURE FROM KARTCHNER CAVERNS EARTH DAY CELEBRATION

Lynn must have poked her eye last night, it was closed and dripping this morning.  Rusty the mule is limping on a normal looking cool front foot and Penny's legs are starting to look like a science project because of flies.  I wrapped her front legs in polo wraps a couple of days ago.  She lost one of them yesterday and I noticed the flies were just moving up her legs to above the polo wraps.  So this morning I put some IMMUNE ONE HEALING BALM on her legs and put men's crew socks on both front legs.

Thuja Zinc Oxide is my usual "go to" balm for cuts or anything that needs to be protected from flies, BUT, it is heavy and gets on everything.  Immune one balm is less sticky, gooey and all that, so I could put it on and rub in, so that it almost disappeared.  Then put a sock over it.  If I tried to put a sock over zinc oxide there would be zinc oxide everywhere, except where I wanted it.  And the Immune One seems to start healing and drying up wounds real quick.  Penny was actually pretty cooperative, although she refused to take an animal cracker from me.  She took them from John like no big deal, but I swear she pursed her lips if I tried to give her one. 

Gus' legs are already covered as is one of Rosie's front legs.  For some reason the outside of her knee on one leg gets all tore up when she lays down, guess she has bony knees.  Boaz's scarred knee is doing really good, so far it's holding it's own and hasn't gotten bloody thank goodness. 

Sounds like business as usual around here..............LOL

NOT MUCH GOING ON........THE WAY I LIKE IT..........!!

Having Doug here to help with chores and Amy and Joseph her son to clean the pens, sure makes life easy, except for the doctoring, which seems to fall on my shoulders.  That's probably because I don't mind doing it, just wish there wasn't a need for it. Last week Boaz had a habronema larvae infestation on his lip in the same place he had problems last year.  They can go dormant and winter over from what I've read.  The flies aren't very bad yet, so that is probably what happened. But the flies that are out, sure were interested in the area, which is what caught my eye.  I wormed him and covered the area 2 or 3 times with invermectin wormer, squeezed the dead little body out and it healed in a couple of days. 

Already having to look for masks, so far Doug has been able to find them quickly.  It isn't always that easy as he will probably find out as time goes by......!!! LOL

Some dear friends on going on an adventure later on this week.  Mike Benjamin was approached months ago for a historical project.  The city of Springfield, Illinois is celebrating the anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's death.  The original hearse that carried his body, was lost in a fire in the 1880's,  I  think.  They wanted to recreate the hearse, I'm not sure of all the details, but know Mike was asked to do the upholstery.  Some of the people came from California to Tombstone to work on the gold leaf.  Mike isn't in good health and for awhile, he didn't know if he'd get it done, (anyone that knows Mike knows that wasn't going to happen) and also didn't know if he would be able to go to the big "doins" in Springfield.  But just found out this morning that both he and Teresa will be accompanying the hearse when it leaves this Wednesday from Tombstone headed for Springfield to be honored guests. 

 This is Mike in his undertaker outfit, measuring Teresa to see if she will fit....!!! 

I hope they have a wonderful time, and get to soak up all the accolades I know will be given.  The hearse turned out beautifully and the upholstery job Mike did was absolutely gorgeous.

 They will adding ostrich plumes once it gets there.  I think Teresa said just the plumes cost $1200.......!!!  The costs were covered by private donations and the hearse will go into the Lincoln museum there.  

Forgot to mention, one of Amy's friends is loaning us her portable corral to use for the kissing booth.  Thank goodness, that little detail had been keeping me awake at night...........LOL

BOOFER AND HIS NEW "DOO".........!!

Those of you that have been out here since last fall, might remember Boofer, the neighbor's dog that adopted us a few years ago.  It's a lot more exciting over here, there's always something going on, so this is where he stays 99% of the time.

This is a picture of him "helping" with one of the Open Houses a couple of years ago.  Rather hairy type cattle dog of some kind.  

Last fall he got into a massive amount of stick tights, that completely covered him below the ribs, front, back and everything in between.  He managed to pull out the ones he could reach, but his belly and rear end were so tightly matted, we wondered how he could even go to the bathroom.  Sometimes we could tell he could go, because that would also get caught up in the mess.  UGH!  

You might ask, "well why didn't we clip him?"  Because he is about 2 steps from being feral, never had been socialized or worked with, so all interaction with him, is on his terms.  He likes to be petted, and grin at you, but if you tried to control him or let him see something like scissors in your hand, he was gone in a flash.  

We gave up during the winter, because it gets too cold to clip him since he is an outdoor dog.  John started working with him a few weeks ago in preparation for warmer weather, by getting him to come into the garage.  Last week started out warm, so we made an appointment with the vet and borrowed her catch pole.  He use to be a growler and sneaky type, although we haven't seen that type of behavior for awhile, he certainly could revert under stress.  We figured the garage would help to contain him if necessary, while we got him in a crate.  John got him in the garage I waited outside until he yelled.  In I went and John had hold of his collar, but couldn't stuff him in the crate by himself.  We turned it up on the end and dumped him in.  

I had warned the clinic, so they were prepared to gas him in the crate and muzzle him before his date with destiny.  They called late in the afternoon, we went to pick him up and they said he was the sweetest thing, even set in laps while someone clipped him..............  WHAT......????  Maybe he knew they were helping him, or maybe being in a garage, crate, truck, clinic with strangers, put him off enough that he didn't know what to do.  I'm pretty sure if we had tried to clip him on his home territory, someone would have probably got hurt and it wouldn't have been him.  We took our large crate, you could put one of the mini donkeys in it I think and he rode home in the bed of the pick-up barking all the way.  Jumped out and seems to be enjoying his haircut. He sure looks different.......!!!!   

Of course as usual the weatherman was wrong and the next 4 or 5 nights were in the low 30's.  He won't go in the hay barn and he sure won't go in the garage for awhile, so he just laid out in the open and shivered until the sun got up.   Hopefully this year we can deal with it better.  

Yesterday we went down to Tombstone to plan for the Tombstone Annual Donkey Rescue Walk, May 9, 2015.  This the the 1st year of what they hope will be a yearly "party" to pay respect to donkeys/burros and maybe help the public realize how special they are. There will be a donkey race, which should be interesting.  One of the rules is the runner and the donkey have to cross the finish line together, not sure the donkeys will cooperate, but we'll see.  There will also be a fashion show, as in dress your donkeys up to be judged.  We are going to haul one of our alumni Rambo aka Bo down for that.  We tried to talk Amy into doing the race, but she tried working with him on leading and decided the fashion show might be easier.............LOL  

We are going to set up a kissing booth for anyone that would like to "Kiss an Ass Today".  We will take BlackJack and Cheyenne, one of the minis.  Sometimes the kids get intimidated by the bigger donkeys, but she is pretty little, so maybe they will be more comfortable with her.  Right now we're trying to figure out how to contain them.  They will be out in front of Doc Holliday's Saloon between the pavement and the boardwalk on a strip of dirt about 9 feet wide.  They can't be on the pavement or interfere with the stagecoach rides.  We were going to haul in corral panels, but they don't look like Tombstone, so we're talking about maybe making a pen with cedar fencing.  We'll check with Home Depot or Lowe's this week and see if its feasible.  There's a hitching post in the next block, but none where we will be.........SIGH...!!  

It should be fun, BlackJack especially has a soft fuzzy mushy muzzle everyone likes to play with and he likes it too......!! 

GOOD NEWS............!!!

I got my computer back and he didn't have to re-format it............so I didn't have to reload everything, and try to figure out where everything was...........YIPPEE.....!!!  I'm still trying to catch up from being without a computer for 3 or 4 days.  I"m not sure what it is I do, but there does seems to be a lot of it to catch up on.........!!!!  

Yesterday we took Wister and Ruger out to Kartchner Caverns as planned for a day of being available for petting and hugging.  I was very proud of them, first of all, they hopped in the trailer like veterans, even though they had just been dragged away from their morning hay.  When John and Doug got them out there, they had to be tied to the trailer, while the pen was set up.  John said they wiggled a little, but mostly because they were gawking and  looking around. 

They did great, until late afternoon.  They had been in the little pen all day and the parade of “admirers”  had slowed down and they were full of timothy pellets.  So full in fact, we had to stop people from feeding them pellets, Wister was so full he refused to eat anymore.  For a young donkey that is definitely not normal behavior.  Since there wasn't anything else to do, they started trying to play fight in a 12x12 pen.  But other than that, they were perfect gentlemen.  Little kids with tiny hands and fingers fed them pellets all day and not one accident, one little boy was only 2 years old.

We hurried home, changed from donkey rescue to racing clothes and headed for the track.  Doug and Amy fed for us, otherwise we wouldn't have gotten there before the races started.  John was pitting for friend that runs a Pro-stock, I just went along, so I wouldn't miss anything.  

Didn't get home until about 2am.  Needless to say today isn't very dynamic for either of us.  We mostly just try to stay awake until bedtime..........!!!   LOL

John has been busy tweeking this and changing that on my car for the next race the 2nd of May. I don't think they are going to have a practice, so I probably won't get a chance to try all these new ideas he and everyone else has.  He says it's ready to go except we have to go to Tucson this week to get a tire to replace the one I wore down to the steel belts in 17 laps.  We're going to try a harder compound, the softer tires grip the track better, but if they won't last 25 laps, I'll have to give up grip for longevity.

Everyday there are more flies.  Tomorrow I'll put out one of my stable fly traps.  Stable flies will not go to the normal fly trap bags.  They feed on protein and like to feed close to the ground, which is why they spend so much time on legs below the knee.   I'm hoping if I start catching them this early, maybe they won't be so bad.  I do have Quilla's legs covered already, his bare legs are just too tempting.

TODAY'S THE DAY.........!!!

DON'T KNOW WHERE OR WHEN, BUT IT LOOKS LIKE THE WORD WENT OUT THAT A PICTURE WAS GOING TO BE TAKEN...!!

My computer will be going to the "doctor" this morning.  He knows I want it back ASAP, but I would imagine that is the usual request by all his customers...!!  LOL  I don't know how long he will have it, he stays busy on calls during the day, and assume re-formatting gets done at night.  So it will take as long as it takes, I guess.

Everyone except BlackJack have on fly masks now.  It's still getting into the high 30's at night, so it will be awhile before I body clip Daisy and Quilla.  I hope their pergolide comes in the mail today.  I'm out for both of them, Daisy as of today and Quilla as of yesterday.  We only get mail 3 days a week, so if it doesn't come today, it will be Wednesday before the next mail delivery.  

Everyone else seems to be doing good.  This week-end is Earth Day and we will be sitting up a booth at Kartchner Caverns Saturday.  Of course it starts early for us, that have lots of hungry mouths to feed before we go anywhere.  So Doug and John are going to load up the boys, Ruger and Wister, along with all the "stuff" that goes with a booth and I will come later after feeding everyone else.  Actually I think feeding will be easier than set-up, so maybe I got the best deal after all.......!!!

I'LL BE BACK.........HOPEFULLY SOONER RATHER THAN LATER  

I HATE REFORMATTING............!!!!

But it looks like I'm going to have to bite the bullet and get it done, whether I like it or not.......!!  I have all the protection programs, but stuff still sneaks in and causes all sorts of problems...........soooooo...........!!!  Got in touch with Jared, my computer guru, and he will be in charge of my computer for the next few days.  Since it's a week-end, I probably won't be back in service until next week sometime........!!!  

Do have some good news, we saw Snooky, the cat on the backyard wall last night.  He got out about a week ago, and we hadn't seen him since the 1st day and were afraid a coyote got him.  But there he was happy as a clam.  We tried to get him back in the house and he wasn't having anything to do with us.  If we opened a door or talked to him, he'd jumped down and take off.  He has always been spooky and not very friendly.  John is all upset, but I told him, Snooky seems to have made a decision for himself that he wants to be a wild cat.  Maybe later on he will let us be part of his life, but it seems right now he's afraid we'll drag him back in the house.  Julius his full brother is out there too, but they don't seem to be hanging together at all.  Good thing it wasn't their half brother Sunny, he is such a whiney, clingy soul, I don't think he'd make it outside and would probably run you down trying to get back in the house.  I'm surprised Snooky isn't missing his 8pm ice cream, maybe he is, just not enough to give up his freedom.

The donkeys are doing good, although I am treating some skin problems and trying to get Gus back to walking good.  I think the trip back from the Phoenix area last month upset the delicate balance on his horrible front feet.  I've tried different meds and about the only thing that seems to help is bute, which I don't like to give long term.  Courtney is going to try to come out next week and put the glue/epoxy stuff on his soles.  It gives him support the coffin bone just can't give because of shifting and demineralizing.  When she did it before it really made a difference, so we'll keep our fingers crossed. 

 Mike Robertson, John, Lynn, Dr. Debra and Cheyenne, chowing down on "real" grass....!!

This is a picture from when we took the girls in for "dental" day.  Mike Robertson owns the local sale barn, and lets Dr. Debra work there when she comes to Benson once a month.  That works out well for her, she doesn't have to drive all over the county, her patients have to come to her.  

Mike is a very special person, I don't think I've ever met anyone that is as amiable as he is.  Considering he runs a sale barn, which means he is in contact with lots of people on a regular basis and has been for a long time, it's amazing how kind and generous he is.  He's the one that wrote a book of short stories taken from his life, called what else............Cowboy Stories. 

I can't say either of the girls were little angels, in fact they both got happy shots, because of bad uncooperative behavior.  There isn't a lot of room in their mouths anyway, and Lynn insisted on chowing down on Dr. Debra's arm.  Cheyenne was just bratty.  Lynn's mouth was pretty good considering she has a lot more teeth than she has room in there.  One of the problems with breeding for down sizing, the teeth didn't get the memo.  Cheyenne has problems chewing, and has had for a couple of years, so she gets mush and a little hay to play with.  We found out she is using the hay to pack into her cheeks to protect from her teeth.  Her lowers aren't lined up as they should be for side to side chewing and the uppers have worn in such a way that they are long on the outside of the lowers, so long in fact that she can't chew sideways like they normally do.  If Dr. Debra had taken off enough of the uppers, so she could chew sideways, she wouldn't have much tooth left.  So she took off the sharp points and a little of the length on the lowers, so they wouldn't continue cutting into the roof of her mouth.  

Today we went into Dr. Nancy's to make an appointment to get the neighbor's dog body clipped.  Boofer is some type of long haired cattle dog.  Last fall he managed to get completely covered with stick tights, which with the long hair makes for a tangled mess.  He is basically feral, he will let you pet him, but if you have anything in your hands like scissors or make any move other than one hand to pet, he's gone in a flash.  So this isn't going to be easy.  They loaned me a rabies noose and gave me some sedative to be given in a muscle.  Our plan is............he is deathly afraid of gun shots, whenever he hears them, he finds John and becomes his shadow.  We will first try to get him in the garage, get the noose on him and stuff him in a crate.  If that doesn't work, we'll have Doug shoot off a gun outside the garage, which usually turns him into a puddle.  Our appointment to get him clipped at the vet depends on if we can get him in a crate or not.  Once he's in the crate, they can gas him at the clinic.  If we can't get him in the crate, we'll have to figure out something else.  He is so matted, I'm sure he's got sores, doesn't stop him from running all over the place like he belongs here.  I'm going to take my big Stewart clippers, in case they want to use them, instead of ruining their clippers.  I'm sure there is a little bit of everything in those mats, including rocks........!!! 

As of this morning everyone has fly masks on.......!!!!

TIME FOR FLY MASKS

Instead of putting on fly masks everyone at once, we're putting them on as needed.  So far about half of them are wearing masks, mostly because of gnats not flies.  Usually gnats aren't a problem, but they sure are prevalent right now. 

I'm getting into the summer doctoring mode unfortunately.  Cisco's sheath and Rosie's belly are my primary objectives.  Not sure what Rosie's belly problem is.  She ends up with swelling in 2 or 3 places and open scabby places too.  And it seems to be an ongoing problem thru out the summer.  It's some type of ventral edema, I just don't know what causes it.  I've given her Tucoprim in the past and it seems to help, but as soon as I quit giving it, here comes the edema and open gooey scabby areas. 

I am pleased with Boaz so far.  His scarred knee is closed and staying that way, although it does have a crusty scab about the size of a dime on it.  I think that is caused by him laying down and the edge of the bone being so close to the surface.  At least if it is closed and dry, it shouldn't be that interesting to the flies.  

Just had to stop, someone knocked on the door.  It was Vic and Lara.  They were our neighbors a couple of years ago, lived just north of us.  Vic use to come over a couple of days a week and pick up poo, just because.  They moved to Colorado to be close to family and then the family went off doing their thing.  So they came back to this area and had been renting a place down by St. David.  Guess they got in touch with the owners of where they lived before and will be moving in as soon as possible.  They were good neighbors, glad to have them back.  The owner had talked about putting in a gate, so the donkeys could go over and keep the weeds in control.  That would give the donkeys 10 more acres of wandering space, plus brush to chew on.  We'll see if it happens or not.